On the Observation the Apostles’ Fast

When Was the Apostles’ Fast Established?

The institution of the Apostles’ Fast dates back to the earliest times of the Orthodox Church.

The ecclesiastical establishment of this fast is mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions:

“After Pentecost, celebrate one week, and then fast; for justice requires both rejoicing after receiving the gifts of God and fasting after the relaxation of the flesh.”

This fast became especially established when churches dedicated to the Foremost Apostles Peter and Paul were built in Constantinople and Rome, which at that time had not yet fallen away from Orthodoxy. The consecration of the church in Constantinople took place on the feast of the Apostles, June 29, and from that time the day became especially solemn both in the East and in the West. In the Orthodox Church, the custom became established for pious Christians to prepare for this feast through fasting and prayer.

From the fourth century onward, references to the Apostles’ Fast become increasingly frequent in the writings of the Fathers of the Church. It is mentioned by Saint Athanasios the Great, Saint Ambrose of Milan, and, in the fifth century, by Saint Leo the Great and Theodoret of Cyrrhus.

Homily for the Sunday of All Saints (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Homily for the Sunday of All Saints

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

Today is the Sunday of All Saints! After the Lord's Feast of Pentecost, All the Saints come before us as vessels of Grace, as fruits of the All-Holy Spirit. All Saints! The known and the unknown. Unknown, of course, to us, but known to God — known by God. All the Saints stand before us. We venerate them, honor them, and glorify them today, on the Sunday of All Saints.

And these Saints are from the earliest centuries, from that Protomartyr Saint Stephen, all the way to the Saints of our own century, to Saint Luke the Surgeon, Archbishop of Crimea and Simferopol. Saints of every age, of every level of education; holy men and women who received the titles Apostles, Missionaries, Fathers, Teachers, Martyrs, New Martyrs, Venerables, and Confessors. A “cloud of witnesses,” as the Apostle Paul tells us. And as we hear so beautifully in the hymn, we ought to cry out and say: “Rejoice, assembly of the Prophets!... Rejoice, choir of the Apostles!... Rejoice, multitude of the Martyrs!... Rejoice, swarm of the Fathers!” All the Saints stand before us.

Yet, my brethren, have we ever stopped to think, when we stand before the icon of a Saint, what thoughts may perhaps pass through our minds? Perhaps some, when standing before a Saint, before the icon of a Saint, simply come and go, passing by either with contempt or with indifference. Others stand before the icon and think about the iconography itself, that is, its artistic style —w hether it is Byzantine or Western. Perhaps they think about the century in which the icon was painted. They may see only the outward appearance and never proceed to the depth of its meaning.

Translation of the Relics of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Stratelates in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Theodore lived during the time of Licinius. He was born in Euchaita and was from there by origin, though he lived in Heraclea of Pontus. He was handsome in body, but even more beautiful in soul, adorned with eloquence, knowledge, and every other kind of wisdom; for this reason some called him Vryorhetor (‘the Powerful Orator’). After passing through every kind of torture, the Saint left his blessed body upon the earth, a body which pours forth streams of healings upon all who approach it with faith. His holy spirit, however, dwells in the heavens. It is the translation of this precious and holy body that we celebrate today.

2. As is often the case, the feast of the translation of the relics of the Great Martyr Theodore contains virtually nothing concerning the actual event of the translation itself. The entire Service is devoted instead to the exaltation of the Saint’s holiness and virtues. Here the hymnographer, Saint Theophanes, repeatedly makes use of the Saint’s very name in order to emphasize that he is “one who bears the name of the gifts of God” (Ode I and elsewhere). He also focuses on the martyrdom that Theodore endured.

Prologue in Sermons: June 8

 

The Pious Should Not Despair When They Suffer Without Fault

June 8

(The Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

During times of severe affliction, many even among the pious lose heart, become faint in spirit, and say: “God has abandoned me; otherwise He would see what I am suffering and would come to help me!”

Is this so? No. The Lord sees everything, knows everything, and will never allow His servants to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear. And if He does permit afflictions to come upon them, sometimes very grievous ones, it is solely in order to grant them a higher reward in heaven as those who have endured to the end.

As proof of this, let us take something from the account of the sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates. When he had been crucified and, besides the terrible agony of being nailed to the cross, endured other dreadful tortures as well, he finally, exhausted in both body and spirit, cried out:

Homily for the First Sunday After Pentecost, or Sunday of All Saints (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the First Sunday After Pentecost, or Sunday of All Saints

On the Veneration of the Saints and the Angels

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

"God is wondrous in His Saints, the God of Israel" (Psalm 67:35 LXX).

Beloved faithful,

You have heard in the Holy and Divine Scriptures the words: "As for the saints who are upon His earth, the Lord has made all His desires wondrous in them" (Psalm 15:3 LXX). For this very reason we Orthodox Christians honor the saints of God, knowing that God accomplishes His will in a wondrous manner through them.

From the beginning I must tell you that the Orthodox Church distinguishes between worship, which is due to God alone, and veneration or honor, which we offer to His saints and angels who minister to the salvation of our souls. The Holy Apostle Paul teaches us this when he says: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14).

The purpose of the veneration of the saints is to glorify God through them, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture which exhorts us: "Praise God in His saints" (Psalm 150:1 LXX).

Homily Two for the First Sunday After Pentecost, the Sunday of All Saints (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily Two for the First Sunday After Pentecost, the Sunday of All Saints 

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1964)

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, which concludes all the great feasts — the Bright Resurrection of Christ, the glorious Ascension of the Lord, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles — the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of all the saints who have pleased the Lord throughout the ages and who now triumph in Heaven in their victory over sin and evil. They are, as it were, the firstfruits of humanity, redeemed by the Most Pure Blood of Christ and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit of God, brought to God the Father through Jesus Christ. They are the blessed fruits of the sufferings, the crucifixion, the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the descent of the Holy Spirit of God, and His abiding presence in the Church.

Among the saints glorified today by the Church are people from every land and every age, of every rank and station, every calling and condition, every office, sex, and age. There are kings and commoners, masters and servants, clergy and laity, soldiers and civilians, peasants and craftsmen, husbands and wives, young men and maidens, rich and poor, noble and humble, learned and unlearned — and all of them lived upon the earth just as we do.

Homily for the Sunday of All Saints (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Sundal of All Saints 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Holy Church commemorates all the saints, honoring the martyrs, the blessed, the venerable ascetics, and all the righteous who have shone forth throughout the ages.

If on the day of Holy Pentecost we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit, if we celebrate the day of the Church's foundation — for from that moment the life of the Church begins — then on the first Sunday after Pentecost the Holy Church continues this celebration of the Holy Spirit, for today she commemorates those who have constituted and continue to constitute the Body of the Church. She commemorates the true members of the Body of Christ, those who, while still alive and still upon the earth, acquired within themselves the Holy Spirit of God.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, He did not leave His disciples any written teaching. He came in order to create the Church as His own Body. “I will build My Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.” He came in order to give life to mankind: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Homily One on the Sunday of All Saints (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily One on the Sunday of All Saints 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1965 at Ćelije Monastery)

Today is the Sunday of All Saints. Today the Church celebrates all the Saints from time immemorial, all holy beings, beginning with the Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, and Seraphim, and then all the holy people from the beginning of the world until this very day.

Why does the Church celebrate All Saints today? On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the first Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the Church celebrates All Saints in order to show that the Saints are confessors of the Holy Trinity, that their entire life in this world was from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit; that this world was created to become the Kingdom of God.

Today the Church unveils the souls of all the Saints and tells us their secret: by what they lived, for what they lived, how they lived in this world, and how they became sanctified. Through them the Church has revealed to the world the mystery of the human person, showing that man was created to become a temple of the Most Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Man was created to become the dwelling place of the Lord Christ in the Holy Spirit together with God the Father.

Homily Four for the Sunday of All Saints (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Four for the Sunday of All Saints 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

What are You saying, Lord? Whoever wishes, You say, to follow You must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow You? Every one of us would like to be where You are, yet not everyone wishes to walk the path that You walked, that is, the narrow, sorrowful, and suffering path. Most especially, very few, very few indeed, are willing for Your sake to deny themselves, to deny their sinful and corrupted will, their passion-ridden heart, or their passions and lusts. Although these have wearied us, although they are destructive to us, they still somehow remain dear to us, and it is painful and difficult to part with them completely. No, the sinner does not desire to follow after You, Lord, but rather after his own heart, after its ruinous inclinations, and after the world which lies in evil.

But the word of the Lord is true and unchangeable. Whoever desires to follow the Lord, that is, to walk the path of righteousness and truth, the path leading to eternal life, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him.

But why does the Lord say, “if anyone desires”? Because He compels no one by force to follow Him, but leaves each person free to choose the path of salvation. To every person has been given the freedom to choose good or evil, life or death.